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Virtualization is a handy tool for running an operating system within your operating system. This week we want to hear about your adventures in virtual computing.

Virtualization allows you to emulate hardware and run virtual computers within the primary operating system on your machine. It’s a handy trick for testing software, sandboxing programs you’re developing, and playing with operating systems and software you may not wish to commit yourself to using full time. This week we want to hear all about your adventures in virtualization–why you do it, how you do it, and your tips for others looking to try their hand at it.

Sound off in the comments and make sure to check back on Friday for the What You Said roundup.

Jason Fitzpatrick is a warranty-voiding DIYer who spends his days cracking opening cases and wrestling with code so you don't have to. If it can be modded, optimized, repurposed, or torn apart for fun he's interested (and probably already at the workbench taking it apart). You can follow him on Twitter if you'd like.

Yeah I use VMWare on my Mac regularly. I really like the fact that I can install Windows 7 in a boot camp partition use it in VMWare if I need to use a lightweight program and actually boot into Windows if I need more horsepower. It seems 10.7 fixed some issues I was having with setting up bootcamp it didn’t tell me I had files that were too large to move this time.

I use VMWare Player under Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit to run 32 bit Windows XP Pro to support some old programs. It works great, especially the ability to move stuff back and forth between systems. Also, occasionally run a Linux system with it.

Where I work as much as our substantial infrastructure as possible is virtual. ESXi hosts are everywhere and anything we can possibly virtualize is so. What would have been close to 300-400 physical servers are now in a few clusters. VMware plays a big part being able to migrate machines is great and even our windows 7 machines are using windows xp mode. I access probably 30-40 virtual machines a day from windows 2000 to server 2008 a few xp boxes, and linux.

I use VMware Workstation several times per week. Sometimes to just get a Linux UI to work in for Android stuff, sometimes to test some new program, or for a school assignment involving Windows Server. It’s become a very common tool for me.

I’ve been using VMs for a long time now, both at work and at home.
At work, mostly using VMWare products (VMWare server for tests, ESXi 4.1 for production)
2 purposes :
– testing anything and everything : necessary step before putting anything into production
– Production environment, Virtual machines offer many advantages over physical servers (backups, disaster recovery, etc.)

At home, for … testing mainly (different OSes/architectures (x86/x64) for scripts/softwares).
It also provides a safe environment for sensitive online transactions.
As for the software part … I was using, until recently, VMWare server 2 but switched to VirtualBox because it’s so much lighter, and more adapted for personal use.

I use VMWare on my work computer (OSX host/Win7 Guest), but only because there are a few Access Databases we use regularly that we can’t access from OSX. And at home I use Virtualbox (Linux Mint host/XP guest) to watch Netflix. In both cases, I find myself forced to Windows guests on a non-Windows host because M$ can’t play nice with other OSs.

At home – VirtualBox on Win2k3 Host with these guests; 2 Linux distros, 2 OS X versions, Chromium OS, Android OS, Win2k8R2, and Win7
At work on laptop/workstation – VirtualBox on Win7 Host with these guests; OS X SnowLeopard, Ubuntu 11.04
Plus an ESXi VMware cluster and SAN for most of our business Servers (11 so far).

The easiest way to try out Ubuntu is called a Wubi install. You install it just like you would any other Windows program and it adds a boot menu so you can choose which OS you want to run at start up. There is a slight performance loss using this method, but it’s easy and can be easily un-done as well if you don’t like it, without loosing your current OS.

I would use VMs, but my computer can’t handle it. I’m on a Pentium 4, so I only have one core to work with. If I had more processing power, I would because I’m a distro hopper because I like testing out other Linux distros. Instead of installing several on my machine at once or taking the time to partition, I could just fire up a VM. Plus, I’d be able to make sure my programs I develop are cross platform across all three major OSes without rebooting.

I use Hyper-V and VMWare on a daily basis at the enterprise level, starting to get into Citrix Xenserver. I also use XP Mode regularly, but only for connecting to VPN’s while keeping my host machine disconnected.

At work I have 3 virtual machines on my PC. XP mode for testing stuff in XP, Windows 7 machine with work image to test different versions of software. Also, I use the 7 image to use the wireless card as the nic so I can test VPN accounts without having to disconnect from the domain. The third is Ubuntu mostly just to experiment. Today I just started using xboot to run portable VM’s from a thumb drive. I can load multiple ISO’s onto it and run them as VM’s on any machine.

Been a long time Virtual PC user, but needed something better. I tried VirtualBox but didn’t like it all, then I got my hands on VMware Workstation. Man, I’m gonna use this forever. Best Virtual Machine EVER.

Sometimes I use VirtualBox to run various Linux distros on on Windows machine.

However, there are times when I don’t need to immediately go from one OS to the other, and I simply run a Linux off of a USB stick (with persistence), using tools from pendrivelinux.com It’s good stuff too!

I have three virtual machines. One is XP Mode, which is free with my Windows 7 install and really helps for those pesky legacy apps. The second is running in VMWare Workstation. It’s also Windows XP, and I use it for testing programs, whether they be my own programs, or ones that I don’t trust installing on my main computer. And finally I have a Windows 7 VM in VMWare Workstation for testing suspicious-looking programs. I don’t care about viruses on my VMWare machines because I can just use Snapshot to easily reset them.

I run both Windows XP Professional and Ubuntu in VMware. I use XP whenever I need a program but don’t want to install it (I like to keep my computer clean) or just don’t trust it (can’t get a virus if it’s running in a VM).
I’ve used VirtualBox in the past, but I prefer VMware; it allows for drag&drop between host and guest, among other things. I do like the snapshots feature in VirtualBox, though.

Macs are my main machines and I have several VMs (go, Fusion!) on each — Win7, XP, xUbuntu, Solaris, PC-BSD (ok, those last two are so I can learn) and whatever pops up on Distrowatch and looks interesting.

I use them daily, 8gb of RAM and Spaces combining to keep them running smoothly like fast individual machines crammed into one lovely iMac case.

I use Parallels Desktop 6.0 on my Macbook to run a virtual Windows 7 Visual Studio Professional development environment. It’s my first Mac since a Mac Plus and I love it. Running a backed up virtual W7 dev allows me to test beta tools without fuss.

I use a lot of software for PLC programming and HMI’s, and with all the different servers, widgets and crap they all install, it really beat down my last WinXP install. Since I moved to Win7 I use different MS virtual machines to run all the different software in their own environment, where they dont affect each other. It works great (I just need a better laptop to handle them all!).

I use Parallels on my Macbook Pro to run Win7 which is installed in bootcamp to run a few windows only programs. If I need more power from Windows, I can reboot into bootcamp and have the same installation.

I use VirtualBox on a daily basis. My workplace uses a network deployment solution, so I use Windows 7 and XP virtual machines to test deployment scripts and software installations. I’m also a student, so I frequently use virtual machines in my classes that require servers such as Oracle Administration and Web Development.

I personally live using the dual-boot solution and I have never even used a virtual machine. Windows + Ubuntu and I couldn’t be happier (though I wish that I could ditch windows). I know it isn’t answering your question but I thought I would put my two-cents in.

Win7 x64 ultimate host and using vmware player for xp great OS and ubuntu and dare I say vista for when my family needs tech support I can fire up what OS they are running and walk them through there issue

i have a new laptop which i use at work. but allen bradley plc’s you need 32bit xp so a virtual machine on my 64 bit win.7 ultimate was absolutely necessary. the only thing though it assigned me 512 on my ram so i had to reassign myself to have 2 gigs.

I use Virtualbox and VMware for; at home messing around and getting to know its capabilities more & at the office we have different OS’s loaded to give over the telephone support.
However I know I do not know virtual software full capability and would love to use it more.
Great post and replies – thank you

Yep, Virtual Box. Windows 7 on Linux Mint. I use 7 once a year at tax time and other times when working on a Windows box for someone and need to test something out. With these exceptions, I’ve lived without Windows since 2008. I don’t hate Windows I just like Linux more.

I’ve also used it to test other distros but haven’t done that in a while.

Sure, that’s where all my linux distros live, and the XP install I run in to a game that doesn’t like my amount of ram or such.

I also have to use it quite a lot for school, it’s the best way for use to have full access to a computer not to mention several of them. Powershell, Linux and Windows administration courses for example.

Main OS: Linux Mint
Virtual system: Virtualbox (however I have vmware handy for a machine I plan to use as a server)

VM’s frequently used:
– Windows XP (for a few legacy applications that I still like to use – the OS is intergrated to access the same files as my main linus OS home folders)
– a second Windows XP or similiar setup with isolated connections so that I can test some questionable things or salvage data from a few friend’s computers by running the required apps on their backed up data.
– Turnkey linux variants (for local offline testing of wordpress and similiar website hosting setups)
– Random Linux Distros for experimentation and exploring new setups.

Main reasons why:
– Limited resources to experiment with (only one decent computer)
– I would rather screw up experimental settings on a VM that I can reverse the damages on, thus saving time and effort rebuilding borked configurations.
– and I want to embrace new things but still be able to use my trusty old tools.

Frequently used:
On my home (Win7) desktop I have a windows XP sandbox for testing new software, a Linux Mint VM (mostly for the Pithos Pandora client). I also have an old laptop running as a utility server. I have a Xubunu VM serving Ventrilo from there.

At work I have a Win7 VM for testing software and updates.

Less frequent use:
I’ve used a mix of vmware and Virtualbox depending on what I’m up to. This ranges from capturing an iffy system to a VM to testing out new Linux distros

Absolutely! when I get a new laptop at work, the first thing I do is install VMWare workstation on it. I clean up unused files and programs on the old machine, and create a virtual machine of it. Since the hard drive size has usually doubled or better, i can install the VM of the old laptop on the new laptop, allowing me to access those ‘once a week’ or ‘once a quarter’ applications. I install applications that I use daily directly on the new machine. The best part – when i find i’m not using the VM of the old laptop frequently, it can be moved to a USB or eSata drive for long term storage, freeing up additional space.

I’m on a Mac and have VirtualBox installed with Ubuntu and Android both installed. Works great. Keep the non business stuff in Ubuntu bridged to the free public wireless and use the company wired network for the Mac host to use. Best of both worlds.

I’ve been using virtual machines on my desktops every day for many years. I started with VMware and have migrated to VirtualBox. I run Ubuntu as my base operating system and Windows in a virtual machine for certain applications that I need that won’t run on Linux.

I use Windows Virtual PC 2007 mainly for hard to get screen shots of BIOS or full OS installs for some of my computer tutorials. Took me a while to figure out how to do it.
I also use XP Mode in Windows 7 on my other system so I can figure out what some users have done to mess something up, and then guide them through the steps (with screen shots) to help them.

Have been a fan of Returnil since I found out about it several years ago. No need to dive into some hard to learn linux operating system, returnil clones the one you already have (in my case Windows 7 32X HP) and on reboot all changes either stick or vanish depending on your choice.

dual boot i3 laptop: win7 ultimate/linux mint debian. xp mode in win7, virtualbox for a separate xp pro for program testing, linux mint ubuntu hybrid. mint debian side also with virtualbox running win 7 ultimate, xp pro and always at least 2 other test flavors of linux along with gingerbread android, chromium os all for development. i even have some test virtualbox os inside another virtualbox os just to say i’ve done it. btw, dropbox installed inside every os to easily save files available to whatever os i’m in at the time.

I’ve started a couple of years ago (2007) with VMware, native XP on a Dell Latitude D620 2GB RAM 100GB HDD, VM’s Red Hat 4 Enterprise for my job purposes on ext disk drives, then I’ve added XP, and Win7 Virtual Machines just to test new releases and throw them away after the test to restart with a new fresh installed one.
Now I have upgraded my HW (Dell Latitude D620) with HDD 500GB and 4GB RAM (just 3.2 seen by HW limitation) and installed LinuxMint as native, VBOX and VMware with XP, Vista, W7, Solaris and some Linux distro as Ubuntu 11.04 and Debian.
I did not happen so far to run parallel VM’s since I do believe the HW is not enough capable.

LOVE virtual machines. I have a Win7 machine that includes a couple Linux distros and Mac distros along with my old XP Pro from way back in the day (cannot live without a few cult classics). And of course, there is XP mode, but I don’t use it since I have a full VM with XP Pro. I can do everything I need on a single machine using nothing but VMWare. I would be at a loss without virtual machines. No dual booting necessary! ^^

I LIVE in Virtual Machines. I am a developer who works in different environments and, from time to time, on different machines.
I now have my personal stuff (email, twitter, etc) on a VM, my web development environment on another, my executable development on another.
All common data is on an external SATA drive.
The advantages are many. My environments don’t become cluttered and interfere with each other. When I get set to go on the road I copy the VMs I need to my laptop and I am ready to go. When hardware improves again, it will be a snap to move to a new machine (the original reason for this). And in one dramatic time saving moment, an EXE I was working on had a bug that only happened when a specific other application was installed. I copied my development VM, started up the copy, installed the offending application and was able to isolate and track down the bug without affecting my regular work and the majority of my clients.
Once you get used to working in VMs, you’ll never go back.

I’ve got my older quad core box at home setup with vSphere Hypervisor. Running on that I’ve got a Windows 7 box for remote desktop/torrenting, a 2K8 R2 domain controller, and an Ubuntu install that I’m pretending to learn Linux with. On my desktop I’ve got a few older programs setup to run in XP mode, and a VirtualBox running Windows 7 that’s for less than trustworthy apps and sites.

At work we’ve got 6 or so blades running under vCenter powering a dozen or so servers and a dozen+ desktops. The desktops are accessed through zero clients given to the folks who need a computer to work, but don’t need a dedicated desktop.

I use VirtualBox at home on my Windows 7 Ultimate. I run OS X on it to fool around with Corona and learn more about that area of computing, plus I am tempted to buy a MAC the next time and I am testing out what I can and cannot do. I am thinking of putting ubuntu on to it, I have an older PC that I put ubuntu on but I rarely power that computer up so having it on my Win 7 machine might help.

Absolutely
I run Ubuntu workstation as a host on my Dell Precision M6500 with all my day-to-day applications on a Windows 7 VM. When Windows gets too slow and tired I simply fire up a new copy of my original VM and I’m back up and running in a fraction of the time it used to take me to reload the operating system from scratch.
I also try new software on a completely separate VM so that I don’t risk damaging my work “machine”
I also have a personal VM which holds all my personal apps and keeps them separate from my work applications.
VM’s are just fantastic!

I seem to use VM’s differently to most of the others here, so I thought I’d add my 2 cents.
I do part time IT work for two different organisations. So I’ve setup my laptop to boot into either of the organisations images both of which are installed as .VHD’s and are loaded from the Windows 7 boot manager.
At home I run a headless Hyper-V server, which has 12 VM’s installed at the moment including WHS 20011 which backs up family PC/Laptops and serves/streams to our media devices. The other VM’s are various versions of Windows and Linux which I usually access Remotely from my Laptop.

I use W7 on a series of Macs (OS 10.6 with Parallels 6.0) for the accounting software and UPS Worldship. I wish there were Mac versions of those two pieces of software though. It is still a “Windows Centric” world unfortunately.

Regularly using VMWare Fusion on Mac OS-X 10.7 for regression testing and support of bespoke PC applications. Have VMs for DOS, Win3.1, 95, 98, NT, Millennium, 2000, xP, Vista and 7. 32 & 64 bit where appropriate. Couldn’t live without it plus the hardware is waaaaay more reliable than any other option I’ve tried.

I’m an Industrial Controls Engineer, and I create a VM for each major project, with just the software I need to complete the job. That way, I can come back to it in the future, even with a different PC, and jump right in with the same software versions, etc. Big time saver.

It’s also a great way to set up a nicely personalized work-space within a restrictive IT environment.

Of Course, I use VM’s at home and at my business. Ranging from XPMode, Hyper-V, VirtualBox, VMware and pretty much anything else thats needed. I have done it on and or for XP, Vista, Win7, Server 03, Server 08, Server 08 R2, Ubuntu, and many other flavors of the linSnot club. Yes I use Linux but man I so dont like it.To many random things that never work as expected especially in VM’s depending on the flavor of the month.

In my mind VM’s vs Physical is on par with the concept of humans got past the concept of killing your dinner with a club and rock and using a microwave and fork.

If your not on VM’s your wasting your Profit$ on un necessary physical equipment most the time.

I use VMware Workstation installed on a Windows 7 X64 Host with 12 GB RAM and a an i7 processor.
I have Windows XP, Windows Vista (x32 and x64), Windows 7 (x32 and x64), Linux Mint (x32 and x64) installed. I do this because I have clients who are using these operating systems and I boot them whenever I need to try something or remember where the heck Microsoft put a particular option. I allot 2GB of ram for each 32 bit client and 4 GB for each 64 bit client. I never run more than two at a time and shut them down when finished.

All work without a problem and have been for a while. I keep each of the guests up to date with virus protection, Windows/Linux updates, and program updates using File Hippo and Secunia PSA.

It is a very valuable support and testing environment. My Host is backed up using ShadowPortect Desktop and so I can restore any Virtual machine rather easily if necessary.

I use VirtualBox to create custom spins of Ubuntu for use as installer disks and to give to friends. The remastersys-backup utility does a great Job of this. I also have a win xp VM setups for Banking with latest AV and up to date firewall. Besides I also use an empty Virtual box VM to test Live CD’s etc.

I use an XP virtual machine for one old program on my Win 7 computer and was surprised to find i needed to get another anti-virus subscription as it presented as a different computer. So far I haven’t, but does anybody have any suggestions for a work-around (other than physically unplugging the network?)

We are preparing to upgrade all of our workstations from XP to Win7, so I am having to update all of our scripts and applications to function on both OS’s since it will take approximately 3 months to upgrade our 5000+ workstations across the state.
I am running Win7 x64 (Core 2 Duo T5600 w/ 2GB RAM), as my host OS, and loading the following VM’s:
XPmode – for testing/running applications that are in the process of being phased out of service or replaced.
XP Pro SP3 VM – for verifying that changes made for Win7 do not affect XP.
Server 2008 Std R2 VM – for MDT image and application package development.
I have been using VM’s since Virtual PC 2003 enabled me to create an XP environment to use for sandboxing.
My host system is a little slow loading the VM’s, but once up, they are stable. And, with my physical RAM limitations I can only load one VM at a time. Once I receive my new workstation (AMD Phenom II X4 quad-core w/ 8GB RAM) I will be able to run multiple VM’s simultaneously.

I use virtual machines occasionally on my Win7 computer. Sometimes I want to try a linux distro or test network security with backtrack. I used to use it a lot more often when I was programming iPhone apps with Mac Snow Leopard, but I find that the only way to make virtual machines run smoothly is to devote too many system resources to them.

I’ve used dual boot systems for Windows/Linux. I also use virtual computers for simulating problems with servers at home and for testing upgrades and modifications to be sure of their ramifications before putting them live at work.

there are alot of entry points into virtualization but the simplest are virtual box, virtual PC/Server, or VMware server.

i personally started with vmware server since i am investigating from a enterprise support viewpoint.
i also highly suggest Hyper-v server R2 if you want to dedicate a box to running a virtual environment.

my whole environment is now running 2008R2 and Win7 clients, and the aforementioned cluster.
but that is out of reach for most people without a MSDN subscription.

however, a single quad core, 8gb of ram system running hyper-v server R2 and a Win7 box with the remote administration tools installed is a excellent start for anyone wanting to learn.

I used VMWare to run iTunes in an old copy of Vista for a year and a half. My main concern was preserving library data, but not having Apple contaminate my desktop (running Win 7) with its bloatware was a big bonus. Last week I finally gave in–it’s nice having my compuer go to sleep properly, which VMWare frequently disallowed.

For those who are interested, there is a fairly painless process for preserving library data now (minus the “added on” dates).

I use so many VM’s that my laptop and MacMini have been upgraded to 8gb of ram to help with the load. Now I can run 2x win08R2 servers at the same time and not overload my native Mac OS X. At the same time I’ve got other desktop OS’s loaded up in VBox in case they are needed for any reason. (xp, Win7, Ubuntu, Redhat)

Then i’ve got a couple more VBox VM’s running on a different machine in the same network. I use those VM’s to connect as clients to my windows/linux servers for testing purposes.

Dual boot is such a pain in the butt when compared to the flexibility of VM’s.

I was using Virtualbox on occasion, but when I tried to reinstall after installing a new, larger HD, it broke, and now I can’t get the blasted thing to install, much less run properly in ANY version. This is on Win 7 Ultimate x64. Very disappointing. I didn’t use it often, but it was handy to have available when I wanted to run something XP-ish and didn’t feel like turning on my trusty old Gateway lappy.

I use VMWare. I use it to test different software before installing it on my regular OS. I have Linux Debian and Windows 7 installed on it. I haven’t tried VirtualBox, but after reading some of the comments, I may test it out also within VMWare.

I don’t know what I would do without my VMs!
I work (and play) on various systems, so I keep a cache of VMs on my MacBook Pro.
Main: MacBook Pro w/VM Ware Fusion
VM1: Windows Server 2008 r2 + SharePoint 2010 for work development
VM2: Windows XP – in case of compatibility issues with old-school stuff
VM3: Blank for playing with LiveCDs
VM4: Windows 7 Ultimate
VM5: Win 7 Boot Camp partition – sometimes I have to be on a Windows machine.
VM6: SLAMPP – LAMP development stack
VM7: Ubuntu – because I like Ubuntu.
I usually only run one at a time unless I’m using a server.
I’ll create VMs sometimes just to experiment with patches or system upgrades.
I keep a baseline of Win7 and WinServer2008r2 in case I have to baseline my VMs or create a new server.

Virtual machines will require much development before they can become mainstream. They are very finicky, troublesome, and un-reliable for a low or intermediately skilled user. Even Windows 7 XP Mode fails to perform in a seamless and flawless manner. Virtual machines just ain’t ready for mainstream computer world.

As an accountant and financial planner I run XP Mode in Windows Virtual PC under Windows 7 Professional 64 bit every working day (1) to run 2 QuickBooks sessions concurrently (one in XP, another in Win 7) and (2) to run stuff that Win 7 64 bit can’t run even with compatibility settings, such as older tax and accounting software still needed for historical reference and latecomers.

This past tax season I couldn’t get TurboTax to run in Win 7 64 so I worked in XP. Luckily, being based in Canada, I only do a handful of US returns.

The VM is definitely less stable than it should be. I wouldn’t bother if it weren’t the only viable solution to certain problems. On the other hand, it’s nice to have when you need it.

I reguarly use Virtual Machines for Robotics programming, namely in Java using LeJos for Lego Mindstorms NXT. I also tried to create a Mac OSX Snow Leopard VM however as my CPU doesn’t support hardware virtualization, this didn’t work. I also use a Ubuntu VM however normally it’s just easier to use by dual boot through Wubi.

What is the purpose of having a Canon ide 20 scanner if the only way to use it with windows 7 is to use virtualbox? I do not like to have to install windows xp just to get around the 30 day limit just because I do not want to register.

I work at a community college working in the networking labs and we use VirtualBox and VMWare player on a daily basis. Many of the homework assignments require students to run multiple virtual machines and we install both of the above mentioned machines so that students can work with whatever machine makes them more comfortable. Personally, I use VirtualBox at home because it’s just easy to work with.

Yes I use Windows 2000 Professional and XP Professional Virtual Machine on my Windows 7. I am trying to buy a Vista OS but it is still very expensive over £100 for basic OS considering it is a problem OS and the server version of Windows 8 has been out a while. I need it to help with my Comptia+A studies.

I use VirtualBox for Win/XP and Ubuntu on my Win/7 system. Also, I have had problems with licenses on downloaded movies I purchased when moving to new hardwarre. So now I download my movies to a Win/XP VM whisch is easily portable to the new hardware. I would expect this feature to be thought of as a flaw by those who forced DRM down our throats, and they may disable this function in the future.

I have Virtualbox 4.1 installed on both OSes in a dual-boot setup of Ubuntu and Windows 7. I only have 2 GB of RAM, and 75 GB of hard disk space, total, but somehow I manage to get 9 VMs to fit and still have enough space and enough RAM. I have Windows 98 SE, MS-DOS 7.10, Windows 2000 SP4, Solaris 11 Express, Ubuntu 10.10, Gparted Live, OS/2 Warp 4.52, Chrome OS, and ReactOS, so I can consider myself more than an amateur in VM use. I sometimes use them for testing, but I mostly just use them for toying with, testing the capabilities of old OSes, and shocking friends with full screen mode (“You use WINDOWS 98?!?”)

I feel like I lost a measurement contest again,( you know what I mean). I wish I could buy a vowel, I seriously thought that sandboxie was a virtual machine, and never even heard of any of these things spoken about here, I also noticed Sandboxie was never even mentioned here, so I am guessing (DUHH) it isnt the same thing at all. Oh well, in my teeny little world, it makes me happy putting my browsers into my little sandbox anyway.

I can’t agree with you. My experience with VB (above post) is exactly the opposite of what you say. I would recommend VB for anyone using Ubuntu and wanting, like me, to run several win apps for which there is no viable Linux alternative.

I have no experience with using any of the Windows family as the Host platform, perhaps your remarks have some relevance there.

I do lots of work in virtual machines and have been doing so for a few years now. I use VMWare Workstation. I use virtual machines mostly for security purposes, using the base machine for a very limited number of functions, then doing banking on an Ubuntu VM and other virtual machines for general purpose browsing or other specific purposes.

This should also mean that failure of my PC would have very limited consequences since I back up the VMs and could get them running again quickly.

I use VMWare at my home computer and there is 3 vmachines running in it..
Windows Server 2008 as a domain controller with DNS and DHCP
Windows Server 2003 as SCCM with consoles for WSUS and PXE
And a Win XP Pro for testing of the above explained

I have both VMWare and VirtualBox, but it seems that VirtualBox is easier for me.
Main reason for using virtual is some older apps don’t work on my main host Win7 Prof. 64Bit. (i5 750, 8gb Ram, 4 1TB’s in RAID0+1TB as backup for critical data).

I tried Ubuntu Linux as Host with VirtualBox to run XP, WSvr 2003, Win7 Prof, but I’m not familiar enough with Linux to have it my Main System.

I use virtual machines because they make it easy to test different computer programs without ruining your host operating sytem. The ability to run four virtual computers on one physical computer has been extremely useful to be able to learn different Windows Server roles and Linux without needing more than one computer. It’s also nice being able to backup the servers just by having a vbscript automatically make a copy of the virtual hard drive the vm’s are hosted on. I use Microsoft Hyper-V running the following

I often use Oracles Virtual Box. In fact, I dual boot between Windows and Ubuntu as host OS’s and then have Virtual Box set up in each host OS to guest whatever OS I like. Then on a third partition (fourth if you count Ubuntu’s swap) I can share several guest OS’s like Windows XP, Backtrack, Mint, Slackware and so on. However, I often find myself using Virtual Box to boot/run live distros right from their .iso – no need to waste plastic or wear out a thumb drives that way.

And talk about virus immune! If I happen to catch a virus while in a guest OS then I simply turn it off, delete the .VDI file and copy the backup back in it’s place. It’s like reformatting a hard drive and installing the OS all over again complete with updates in one fell swoop. It only takes as long as it takes to copy a multi-gigabyte file which is no where near the PITA it is to reinstall an OS for real.

And if you like using Microsoft Windows’s VHD’s but hate to shut down Linux as host then you’re in luck there too. Just point Virtual Box to the .vdi file before you start Windows as a guest and once you’ve booted virtually you will see the VHD as a separate hard drive which you can fully read and write to. That’s cause you can use .vdi files (unmounted, of course) with Virtual Box just like you can use .iso files as static optical drives. It’s great!

I’m sure VMWare’s “Player” (and yes, that’s what they call their VM client) can do all this too but I seriously doubt Microsoft’s Virtual Machine can. I already know for a fact that Microsoft Virtual Machine can NOT work when a Linux distro is host – only VBox and VMWare Player seem to be able to do that. Seems like Microsoft’s Virtual Machine only works with Windows 7 Ultimate or Vista Ultimate when you want to use XP as a guest too – and that just sucks! Doesn’t Microsoft know that VBox or VMPlayer can fire up a whole virtual instance of XP while the host might only be Windows 7 Basic? So forget XP “mode” (unless you have very limited resources) and forget Microsoft Virtual Machine! I’m not a fan. Maybe Microsoft should Abort, Retry or Fail where it comes to VM’s.

I use Virtual Box under Linux. I rarely need the Windows guests so usually I try other Linux distros. If I could figure out how to virtualize my removeable hard drive installs I would use it even more.

I used to use VMWare but the license I had expired. I must admit it was really easy to use and would do so, but I lack the funds. So now I use Virtual Box. Every once in a while I’ll tinker with MS Virtual PC- but Virtual Box is the VM of choice.

I use Virtual Box to work the torrent sites for operating systems and other ad hoc software I need. I rebuild broken laptops and use the torrents to access ISO’s. I figure if I’m going to catch a virus I may as well do it in VM- so I can reset the machine and keep going. I suggest Virtual Box to everyone I know that downloads files from a torrent. My virus scanner filters out problems before they get to my host machine, so it’s a relatively safe bet when I browse sites that are questionable.

I use VirtualBox on my Windows 7 machine running VMs of Xubuntu and XP a great way to switch OSes instantly, to run older windows programs, run programs for which I prefer a Linux version, or to check out risky websites or questionable software without risking the host machine.

I am intrigued by subv3rt’s use of a blank VM for trying different Live CDs from the ISOs…think I’ll try that myself, I hadn’t thought of using a VM like that.

I am using Windows7 professional bought an upgrade from home premium and now have xp pro as a virtual machine as there were some 32bit programmes that I use like upgrading navman gps amazing there is no software from such large company, have found some things don’t work like my hand help [ancient zire31]palm product and also trying to use 32bit d-link printmanager software to set my print servers attached to my printers, lucky I have a laptop running xp pro 32 bit so can live with that but very disappointed that a company like d-link don’t have 64bit software fior these items as I have 3 of them and cost quite a bit, other than that pretty happy with virtual machine but is not something I use consistantly, but can see how it could be a good tool

Been using them since VMWare 4 back in 1999. Set up ESX, ESXi, migrated to Vsphere in the corporate environment. Currently use Hyper-V at work (Yuck). Have ESXi and Workstation 7 at home run virtual network for testing and windows based stuff. Use Linux for physical machines.
Have tired Virtual Box and some others but always go back to VMWare.

I run virtual box on a 6-core machine running ubuntu 10.10 as a host.
I do windows development on a virtual win7 machine.
I do web development against multiple virtual ubuntu servers.
All at the same time.

A buddy of mine explained it this way… if he brings another computer home, is wife is not very happy. But toss in some more RAM, and fire up another virtual computer… and she is none the wiser… marital bliss at last!

Nowadays, because of some needs at my office, I need to test ISO’s and OS live disc or setup conversions (both Linux and Windows) into USB distributions. I’ve discovered and I use MobaLiveCD, which tests them on the fly, with no installation.

Deinitiely am using virtualisation. Have started with VirtualBox and than switched to VMWare. Have installed on host OS Win7 and on host OS MAC OS Lion different virtual machines with WinXP, Win Vista, Win7, Red Hat 6, Ubuntu 10, Solaris 10, VMWare Server and inside WinXP virtual machines…..Have networked 4 WinXP virtual machines.In general that would mean that for various testing purposes i am using virtualisation. Silvijo

I installed VMWare Player and installed XP on my father-in-law’s new Win 7 64bit (not bought with my intervention) laptop. As he needed to run some pre-historic softwares and XP runs anything made from the birth of man. Worked like a charm i share the base drive as a network drive for access to all the files. And everyone is happy :D

Host: Windows 7 Pro
—-XPM—-
Since pro doesn’t support Asian language, XPM really help out when installing Asian software, and displaying Asian music fonts. It nice being able to only run certain programs without opening the whole VM windows. Downside to XPM is the speed. =(

–VirtualBox–
I love virtualbox because its lightweight fast and free. I can bootup xp in seconds. This is important since I use this to surf the web and be worry free of virus, malwares, etc. Because snapshot fix all. Also running archlinux on it.

–VMware Workstation—
VMare has been in the virtual machine business for a long time and their product is top of the line. But the program is bulky compare to virtualbox, althought its feature rich its not as fast or free! like virtualbox.

At work i use the virtual machines when i need to test software or if i want to create guides on different operating systems. Also i can setup isolated networks to test Active Directory tweaks without damaging the company network. I use VMWare Server 2 to do this as it allows HTTP management which helps when working remotely.

At home i have an old Sony NR11Z/T which i have tweaked the BIOS so that it can run a hyperviser which is surprisingly stable. I use XenServer on this laptop and XenCenter on my desktop to manage the virtual machines. I use this setup so i can use 80% of the laptops RAM for the Virtual Machines and i have Windows Server 2008 R2[trail], Ubuntu server and Ubuntu desktop install on the laptop. This also allows me to setup isolated networks that i can test products such as PXE booting.

I have a dedicated box running the free version of VMWare ESXi. I love the fact that it is a bare-metal (fast) installation and the box only cost me $600 (Quad-core AMD, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB HD, etc.) I normally run 4 VMs on it and I have been able to go up to 6 without a performance hit. I have all kinds of OSes installed. I love playing around with new tech on this machine without affecting my day to day machines.

I use Virtualbox and VMware Player/Server at home to test out distros mostly. I have run a set of servers off of a single device to play with running Ubuntu in a Windows Domain, as well as playing with DNS, Proxy, and E-mail servers. This lets me test out and tweak as many settings as I want and just scrap the whole lot when I’m done. I can also save any working configurations and deploy them any time I like.

This allows us to Install fresh machines with out having a lot of additional equipment on hand. It allows our students to setup their own domain servers with clients on a single host. As well, running multiple machines in the "Host Only" networking mode keeps them off our actual network. The "Snap shot feature comes in handy as well. It allows us to back out if a student makes a mistake, and to set the machine to a freshly installed point before exams.

Like I tell my students, "This way if you mess up, you only 'virtually' mess up."

I use VMware Player and Virtual Box. But, i like VMware. I fell like it’s user friendly and performing well.
I run Android Live CD, Windows XP and Chrome OS as virtual machines on Windows 7 Ultimate.
I think VM is the safest method to use any kinda applications without getting harms to the main machine.

I use two windows 7 machines running different cctv systems, and a windows xp for downloading to sandbox the downloads untill they are safe. Also got sbs 2003 and after a soon to get ram upgrade an sbs 2008 server for testing.

DID YOU KNOW?

There are no known bipedal amphibians nor is there any evidence in the fossil record that any have ever existed.